5 no-brainer sales plays

Don’t reinvent the wheel.

Over the past year, I've played in both the 0-1 (finding product-market fit) and 1-5 (scaling in a specific vertical) phases at Origami. I've also chatted with 100s of sellers and founding sales folks about what's working for them (since Origami sold into them).

While every market and company is different, there are a few plays that absolutely work and can book you meetings. I've seen these work at early-stage startups before they found product-market fit and at huge companies like Rippling when they're breaking into new markets or moving upmarket.

Here are five no-brainer plays:

1. The "Feedback" Play

How to do it:

Hit people up on LinkedIn with a genuine, friendly message. Start with a real observation about their career to show you're a human who actually gives a shit. Then add a call to action like:

"We're launching a new product soon and chatting to get feedback from RevOps experts before we go public with it. LMK if you'd be down to chat—would really value your thoughts!"

At Origami, when we were testing a new beta product, about 20% of people who engaged with me on LinkedIn booked a meeting from this. They became beta users.

Once you're on the phone, qualify if there's pain and validate if this is an interesting market. Then, if there’s real pain, seamlessly ask: "Sounds like this is a pain point. Would you be interested in seeing how we'd solve this?"

Why it works:

When you're breaking into new markets, you really just want information on whether this is a pain point and if someone would pay for it. You're not trying to sell right away; you're genuinely learning. That authenticity comes through.

One SDR leader at Rippling told me they'd do this with enterprises when testing new markets and offer a gift card. 40% of those meetings turned into real opportunities.

Who it's for:

Anyone breaking into a new market, testing a new product, or trying to understand a persona better. Works at both early-stage startups and established companies entering new verticals.

The key: Be genuine. Don't turn the meeting into a sales pitch. Actually get feedback. It's an evergreen play as long as you're authentic.

2. The Competitor Play

How to do it:

Target competitors of your best customers. Ask your current customers why they bought your product, then take their exact words and package them into a campaign (cold calls, emails, LinkedIn, whatever).

Ideally, link to a case study showing how you helped this customer with a specific, number-driven value point. Then ask them to hop on a phone: "Hey, want to see how we did it for [Competitor]? Or should I share more information?"

Your job is to make sure every decision-maker at these competitor companies sees your message.

Why it works:

If you already have a great customer, their direct competitors are likely feeling the same pain. They'll be very interested in seeing how you solved it for their competitor. You've got built-in social proof and relevant pain-point messaging.

Tap into one vertical, close a few customers, then get everyone else around them. You've already got the proof.

Who it's for:

Anyone with at least a few strong customers in a vertical. This is the tried-and-true method of outbound.

Important: Make sure you're not giving away proprietary information or ruining relationships with your best customers. But often, it's not a big deal and it makes total sense.

3. The Referral Partner Play (Mini Marketplace of Usefulness)

How to do it:

Find people with complementary offers or who sell into the same personas you do. Build trust with them, become useful to them, and stay top of mind so they understand what you do and how you help.

Here's the playbook:

1. Reach out to these people. Connect genuinely. Be interested in their business.
2. Hop on a call: "Hey, I've got a bunch of people that may be good fits for you. Can I learn more about what you do? I think we could have complementary offers. I'd love to know who I should refer to you."
3. If there's alignment and you like them, throw them into a Slack channel and start sending them customers.
4. Make it very easy for them to send you stuff too.

It doesn't need to be formal. Just become friends. After a bit, if there's consistent deal flow on both sides, formalize a partnership. But initially, just move quick, be super useful, and do a handshake agreement. Show you’re thinking long-term. Don’t financialize things too much to start.

Why it works:

Every time that referral partner takes a call or meets with a customer, those people could become your customers too. They could mention you, refer you, intro you.

You're essentially becoming a mini API marketplace. You find people in your ecosystem who can unlock revenue for you, and you help them. Because you're in the same ecosystem, you already have built-in ways to find them customers, make useful intros, and provide useful ideas.

As the quote goes: "The best way to get what you want is to help other people get what they want."

Who it's for:

Anyone who has complementary products or sells into similar personas. Works incredibly well for early-stage companies.

Examples:

• At Origami, we sold to founding sales folks, so partnering with marketing tech platforms, marketing agencies, and sales agencies made sense. That drove a bunch of intro’s.
• Folks like Adrian Alfieri, Cyrus Shirazi, and Michael Brod do this incredibly well. They're constantly meeting people in their ecosystem and becoming super helpful. This play has driven millions in closed revenue to each of their companies.

Pro tip: Have systems to stay top of mind (newsletters, investor updates, social posts, text pings). Make it ridiculously easy to help them and be helped.

Best part: Even if it doesn't work out, you built goodwill with all these people. Who knows about the downstream effects of that.

4. The "Fisher" Play

(s/o to Jeff Deutsch who taught me this when he lived with me and my roommates for two weeks with his little baby Von. Love Vonch! Come back and visit from Australia soon - we miss you and Tash.)

How to do it:

Find sellers at companies who sold into the same persona you sell into but who no longer work at those companies (or competitors). Befriend them. Learn from them. Pay them. Align incentives with them.

At Origami, about 30-40% of people I reached out to hopped on a call. Half of those were qualified (still has strong relationships, had a repeatable process we could learn from, and were open to a referral partnership) and we turned them into advisors.

Here's what we did:

1. Paid them to learn: Hop on calls and learn everything about how they sold into that persona. What channels and plays drove revenue and meetings? Who did they reach out to? What actually worked? How did the deal cycle run? How did they multi-thread through the organization? What were the main things people cared about? What were the objections? What were the main concerns? We asked everything. And we paid them upfront before the call, so they knew we were serious.
2. Aligned incentives: If they liked our product, we'd give them a cut of deals they referred. We'd say: "Hey, if there's anybody you know that could be a really great fit, you can intro them to us. Here's a 4-line forwardable email. I can give you 10% of the average contract value of the first contract."

Now you've got multiple fishers actively fishing in ponds they're already swimming in. If somebody catches their bait, they reel them in, send it to you, and they get a chunk of the meal. And those deals close at a way higher clip than any others.

Why it works:

These people have books of business and relationships you don't. It's very low effort on their end; they're just lobster fishermen throwing down nets. Sometimes they bring up the net and boom, there's a lobster. They give it to you, they keep some.

As long as you optimize for trust, pay people well, and align the right incentives - it's a pretty asymmetric play for you.

Who it's for:

This gives you a very ethical positive some way to access a book of business without hiring someone full-time.

The key: Keep those relationships strong. Be upfront. Have really strong communication. People's networks are super valuable. They want to make sure any intro they make is treated really well. You've got to operationalize this. But, this play is straightforward and it just works.

5. The Social Selling Play

How to do it:

Context: Social selling only works if the people you're selling to are on socials. But if they are (e.g., sellers are on LinkedIn), it works really well.

Why it works:

You're building familiarity and trust before you ever ask for anything. When you reach out, you're not a cold stranger; you're someone they've seen, engaged with, and maybe even agreed with.

Eric and I have done this at Origami. We've booked tons of warm outbound and gotten inbound just from posting 3x a week about things we learn, commenting, and DMing folks.

Who it's for:

Anyone selling to a persona that's active on social (LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.).

Tools:

• Kondo is a no-brainer if you're doing this.
• Michael Kurson's company is great for LinkedIn attribution in HubSpot if you need it.

Other plays

There are a few more plays I’ve done that work but are more niche and don't apply across every company: ABM media plays, dogfooding your own product, and other random niche tactics. But the five above are the no-brainers.

Hope these help.

- L

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